


Achieving Self Awareness

by MaeJacrezz007



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Leverage, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (kinda), Alternate Universe, Artificial Intelligence, Badass Eliot, Cyborgs, Gen, How Do I Tag, Hurt Eliot Spencer, I'm Bad At Summaries, Marvel Universe, Mutants, What Canon?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-21 16:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9558242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaeJacrezz007/pseuds/MaeJacrezz007
Summary: Before Iron Man or Tony taking charge of Stark Industries, Obadiah Stane oversaw a weapons project that could change the world. SITS. Stark Industries Toy Soldier project, creating weapons that were part man and part machine. Stronger, faster, able to be programmed to follow any orders without morals in the way. Most advanced AIs to date.Damien Moreau buys one. Model L0:73. He is the best. He writes his own code.He is Eliot, and this is his story.





	1. Self Aware

**Author's Note:**

> Mainly just Leverage for now. More Marvel later. Don't own either. Just play with their characters.
> 
> Rated for cussing and some violence, plus the idea of programming people. To me that just seems like not a kid thing. So yeah. Might jump later.

Clickclickclick.....CLICK.

Vrrrrrrrrhhhhhmm-tick

System booted. Running full system scan. Running full system scan. Running full-

Scan completed. No viruses detected. All functions fully operational. Hard drive at 00.0003% storage capacity. Vital signs offline. Sensors disconnected.

Receiving input: Data_Download_136.cmpx, AI_Base.cmpx, Internal_Log.xlsx, Vitals_Connect_Rewrite_19.cmpx

Data processed. Hard drive at 00.0009% storage capacity. Vitals_Connect_Rewrite_19.cmpx file unable to run. Internet link established. Internal_Log.xlsx launched. Recording to Internal_Log.xlsx. AI_Base.cmpx launched.

Log001(27OCT2002.1534) ..... _Huh_.

Hard drive at 00.0086% storage capacity.

CLICK  
Shutdown sequence activated. Data saving. All data stored. All systems shutting down. Power off in three. Two. One-

* * *

 

Clickclickclick...Click.

System booted. Running diagnosis scan.

Scan complete. All functions operational. Vital sensors connected, status offline. Memory at 00.0254%. New programs installed. Data downloaded while powered down.

 _... Assholes_.

Receiving command input: Turn on sensors.

Finding program for sensors. No file called Sensors. _Hm. Maybe_.....

Running program Vitals_Connect_Rewrite_59.cmpx. First time a Vitals_Connect file should be able to run. Program launches something labeled Senses. Like Sensors.

System loading. Booting up systems Hearing and Sight. Scan shows system for Touch not functional. Don't boot that one yet. Systems loaded. Online in three. Two. One-

Lights. Sound. Noises. So much noise. People, talking? Something makes a crash -- titanium hitting polymer -- and noise level increases. People move. Internal_Log has been activated, recording as noise is directed at....

_At..._

Log126(15MAR2003.2104): Holy shit. It connected. You see that. Yes I see that. Think it can hear us. Maybe. But the AI isn't strong enough yet. Shouldn't be. Yeah but what if. Fuck. Hurry up. Shut it down.

_At?_

_**Me**?_

Something begins buzzing. Louder, louder as the log records. Lights and movement and sounds. Too much. Too much!

CLICK  
No more lights. Force shut down initiated. Memory at 00.0804% capacity.

* * *

 

Lab technicians test reflexes. Chatter to each other. Ignore project subjects.

Fine. _Jerks_.

The doors to the lab open. Three males walk through. Facial recognition identifies the project leader, a mousy man called Dr. William Gold. Second is Obadiah Stane, runs Stark Industries and oversees the project. Third is unidentified, but appearance is logged into memory batabase. Sight continues to track as the men move through the lab.

"I think you'll be glad you invested in our project." Obadiah Stane is speaking, walking the unidentified man around. "The one you requested achieved self awareness three months ago."

All here men stand right in Feild of Vision, unidentified man bending at waist and leaning closer.

 _....Weirdo_.

"Incredible." The man has an unidentifiable accent. Dark hair. Dark eyes. Very dark eyes. Darker deeper.

_That doesn't make sense._

Man moves back to stand with others. "Why isn't the AI more advanced, if I may ask. Didn't the Stark brat have his fully functioning within a few months?"

Dr. William Gold clears his throat. No signs of sickness. Must be nervous tick. "If I may say so, Mr. Moreau, Tony Stark wasn't trying to do what we are. His system JARVIS is indeed amazing, but it is also contained inside an entire building and doesn't have to do what ours needs to do. JARVIS will never be human, and that's what we're achieving here. Just, look at him."

"It," Stane cuts in. "Still a machine, Dr. Gold. Still an it."

The doctor's temperature rises, especially around his face. Maybe sick. "Mr. Stane with all due respect we aren't building an android here. Our projects are almost completely organic. They will bleed. Be injured. Need to eat. Sleep. Feel. We aren't taking a computer program and stuffing it inside a human shaped computer. We are growing something here, Mr. Stane, that could change the world. Just imagine-"

"You are dismissed, Dr. Gold." Stane cuts in again. Something strange in his voice. Hard. Steel.

_No sense again._

Mr. Moreau leans closer. The doctor walks briskly away. Stane remains standing, hands hidden inside trousers. Pockets. Mr. Moreau speaks, directed at Stane, but doesn't look away. Strange. "How close to human is it?"

 _ **He.** Dr. Gold said so. Jerk_.

"Almost entirely." Stane. Watching closely. Strange again. "Its entire body is laced with metal, an alloy designed for this use. It's grafted onto the bones and all the main ligaments are cable. Of course the nervous system base is mechanically wired, and the brain had to be a very specific balance of organic and machine. Hell, I'm overseeing the damn project and I'm still impressed."

Mr. Moreau glances up at Stane, then back. Staring almost. "Whose body was this? I need to be sure that after I buy it, there won't be any other personalities or morals or whatnot left in that grey matter."

 _Grey matter?_ Quick scan. Red, pink, bloody, wires. Accessing internet. _Oh_. Brain.

"No one's. The bodies were all grown here. Took a year just to get the bases down. Since this one came online, its been building up. The others too, but it was the only one to make it past stage one operation successfully the first time. Out of the original fifteen that took to bodies, this one and four others are still functioning. Trying to figure out a way to recycle the bodies that didn't work or didn't reboot."

 _Others?_ Running through internal log. _Oh yeah. Remember mention of others. Didn't make it. All failures. Broken._

Stane pulls something out of his pocket. A flash drive. Hands it to Mr. Moreau. "This has a lot more technical information on. Records of test done. Expectations of the project. It'd be greatly appreciated if you keep this to yourself."

Even though he takes the drive, Mr. Moreau doesn't look away. "How far is the AI?" Ignoring what Stane says. Bold.

"Hard to tell. The others recently reached self awareness, much later than this one did, and those talk. It doesn't. Technicians are still trying to find the glitch." Stane glares at one of the skinny humans, and she scurries away.

 _Ha! Morons_.

Mr. Moreau smiles. Dangerous. Sharky. Doesn't make sense. "Tell me when he decides to talk to you, Stane."

_..... Shit. Not a moron._

Still smiling dangerous, Mr Moreau reaches. Sense Touch logs fingers, feeling, then pressing three buttons simultaneously.

CLICK  
Shutdown sequence activated. Logs saved. Memory at 00.1760%. Senses going offline. Mr. Moreau shark smile last thing visible.

 ** _Fuck_**.

* * *

 

It takes exactly four times of being started up after first seeing Mr. Moreau to realize that it --he-- has a body. The realization is startling, something he accesses through one of the many Base_Behaviour programs installed. A few are glitchy, something called Manners nonoperational in certain places. The techs keep downloading new versions of the program, usually after reading his logs. Apparently he's not supposed to call them morons, assholes, jerks, or dickheads. News to him.

He knows what part of the code they keep messing with, but since he doesn't want to change --a revelation that came shortly after his self awareness-- he doesn't let the code take. It sits in the back and can't run. Waste of storage space. They never delete anything though. He wonders if they can.

Mr. Moreau shows up again and again. The human seems interested in him. Why is still an unidentified variable. He likes the human enough though. Besides the shark smile. That's creepy.

The techs ask him to move around his body. Walk the lab. Get used to Motor_Functions. Ha. A function labeled Function. Funny. Anyway. Motor_Functions works well. The past few times the techs had made him do increasingly difficult tasks, large and fine motor skills like jumping or writing. He's good at it all. The techs must think so too. They chatter together and smile and make notes. Don't talk to him though, only when giving commands.

They still think he's an it. _Asshats_.

* * *

 

Mr. Moreau comes and collects him. It's been almost nine months since he knew about himself. Gained self awareness as the techs would say, but he likes to think he found himself. Makes it sound more fun.

He's given an outfit of jeans, a blue flannel, boots, and a white tee with his code over his heart. The same sequence is tattooed like a band around his right bicep, along with a small logo and protect name. He thinks it looks neat. Doesn't like the way it sounds. Too clunky in people's mouths.

**SITS**  
**L0:73**

Stark Industries Toy Solider, followed by his model number. He likes the word solider though. Brings up images of warriors and battles. The techs had downloaded something that helped with that mentally he thinks. Loyalty and obedience were written deep in his original code. He doesn't think he could change it if he tried. Doesn't know if he would even want to. Both sound pretty good to him.

Mr. Moreau puts him on a plane, and they fly over an ocean. When they land his GPS tells him they're in San Lorenzo, a small island nation. Bad internet though, and he can't get a good enough signal to connect to. Sucks.

A car takes them from the tiny airport to a large estate, men in suits pacing along the perimeter. Automatically he scans them, able to tell most were military trained though not American military. Different countries. A few ex Marines. He watches them all as Mr. Moreau takes him inside, and the ones closest watch back. _Security_ , he realizes, and the door closes.

Through the maze of halls Mr. Moreau finally opens the door to a lavish looking office, waiting for him to enter before closing the door. Mr. Moreau takes a seat behind the desk but he just stands.

"I'm really not sure how to begin all this," Mr. Moreau says, laughing, though at what is a little confusing. "It's safe to say you're not like my usual staff. I'm not sure how much you even really understand what you'll be doing, or if you even need to." Mr. Moreau pauses, spinning slightly in the chair. "Can you speak?"

 _Duh_. "Yes sir."

A smile, non-sharky but still strange, flashes his way from Mr. Moreau. "Excellent. Manners are good, though if it's only you and me call me Damien. Understood?"

 _I'm a machine not a moron._ "Yes Damien, understood."

"Great. Now then," Damien leans his elbows on the desk, fingers interlaced and mouth still smiling. More shark this time. "Have you ever heard of a hitter, _moj mali vojnik_?"

* * *

 

Three and a half years. That's how long it took to break free from Moreau. And even then it wasn't really breaking free. It was running. He ran like his life depended on it and left a trail of destruction in his wake half the way. Wet work was all he knew, literally what he was created to do. Leaving that behind with Damien was impossible on a level he didn't care to calculate. So he did what he knew, and got as far away from Belgrade as he could.

He couldn't escape. Damien had made sure of that. Everytime he went into sleep mode, he saw play by play recordings of what happened on the job he finally broke on. Two weeks after he ran, but not before Damien had the damn virus installed. He couldnt stop seeing the blood. The toys. The children lying broken like their dolls.

He wants to throw up just thinking about it.

Moreau finds him, of course. Not personally, but he can't work up the processing power to figure that out. Not when Chapman and half Moreau's security force corner him in a Boston alley. He fights. Kills a few before someone gets behind him. Sensors hadn't been working right. He wonders if Moreau did it. Too late though.

The man pins him, four more holding. Even with the enhancements and strength he can't get up. Panic floods through him as Chapman steps up. Flash drive in hand. He struggles more, but it doesn't help. Chapman lifts his hair and plugs the drive into the small USB port half hidden in his hairline at the nape of his neck. His body freezes, automatically downloading, and the virus launches into his system.

It hurts. Burns. He feels the hands let go. Feels them kick him against the wall. Into a pile of trash. The virus continues, corrupting through his files and functions and programs. It doesn't care that he's been thrown away already. Trash.

_Stane never was able to recycle the failures._

Distantly he knows he's bleeding. Feels broken ribs. Spilt lip. Lacerations across his arms. Eyebrow busted. But it's not important.

Inside, the virus rampages through his systems. He tries to fight it. Contain the programing. Doesn't work. Doesn't help. Losing a battle. Losing himself. _Losing_.

He shakes and reaches up, fingers carding through his hair and quickly finding the shut off buttons. He's never shut himself down before, but he hopes it helps. Doesn't want to lose everything.

Sending a final prayer, he presses down.

CLICK  
Shutdown sequence activated. Virus detected. Counter measures being launched. Force shutdown to remain until virus removed. 00.0793% data currupted.

 _Shit. Losing himself_.

* * *

 

Clickclickclick..... beep

Virus contained. Memory at 05.9439% capacity. At last start up memory was at 06.0521%. Total data currupted 00.1082%. Unable to save. System scan complete. Operating at low level functionality. Immune_System.cmpx damaged. Motor_Skills.cmpx damaged. Senses_Sight.cmpx damaged. Total of 692 Internal_Logs files damaged. Base_Behaviours_Emotions.cmpx damaged. Base_Behaviours_Manners.cmpx completely nonoperational.

_Ha. Serves those asshats right._

AI_Base.cmpx and connected files show alteration. Currupted. Unable to identify. Fully functional.

.... _Well **shit.**_

Senses coming online. Lagging. Power levels depleted. First Touch, then Hearing and Sight focus in. He feels the pain first. Still bleeding and broken. Worthless toy. Nanobots apparently not doing their job right.

"Oh thank god. You're not dead. Hey man, can you focus on me? What happened? Shit, Parker, don't poke the man." Hearing snaps in first. He blinks, eyes focusing. It's hard. Not as sharp as usual. Damaged. He sees though, and can move his head slightly to see who's talking to him. A young black man, skinny and tall and maybe 24 years old, crouches on the gritty asphalt.

 _Asphalt_? Oh yeah. Alley. Chapman. Virus. 691 Internal_Logs still damaged. Slow recovery might be possible. Hopefully.

Another person moves, and he looks at them. Female, closer. She's blonde and probably the Parker the black man mentioned. She is poking him. He scowls, and shrugs her finger off his shoulder. Her eyes flash, steel sky blue, and he gets a strange feeling off her. Not able to tell what when he scans her. She pokes him again, holding her finger right over his tattoo. "Hardison, I don't think he's a human."

The man --Hardison-- moves to kneel next to Parker. He can't move, just watches them watch him. It's almost funny, but too weird to be. Then Hardison curses, glancing down at where he feels blood staining his shirt. "He's SI Tech. This is amazing. Scary crazy, and damn near impossible, but amazing. Hey," the man stops and moves to look him in the eye. "Can you tell me what happened? We can take you to a doctor, hospital or something."

Panic floods through his system and he shakes his head. No. Hospitals are bad. Remembers that. "Fight," he explains, because apparently his filter is gone too. "Broken now. Not worth fixing. Just trash. Better." And he thinks, maybe, it is. No more worrying about Moreau or what the man made him do. Safer.

The man frowns and shakes his head. "OK then, so someone fucked you up. You're not human, if the shiny blood and jump drive in your head say anything. That's cool. Parker isn't either, though she's a mutant, not a, um, cyborg thingy. That's cool. We can help you." The man rambles, peeling his shirt back to see the wound on his torso better. The nanobots always made his blood shiny, reflective like stars when they clotted together. Hardison doesn't seem all that phased by the blood or his not-human-ness, and continues talking. Lots of talking. "I know a guy who won't ask questions. Real close by. Parker and me can help you there and he'll let you crash on his couch. Probably won't care. We show up uninvited all the time. What's your name?" Lord, so much talking.

It takes a few seconds to process. Getting faster, but still lagging. It frustrates him, but whatever. "Don't have a name," he informs Hardison, hoping that he's right and it wasn't just erased by the virus. That would suck. "Serial L0:73."

Hardison has an unreadable expression on his face. Maybe shock. Is he hurt? Scans didn't say so.

"Eliot." Parker's sudden voice makes Hardison jump slightly. He doesn't have the energy to, but looks to where the girl is peering at his tattoo, head tilted at a crazy angle. "Like the calculator hello thing. 07734, hello. L0:73, Eliot."

He doesn't know what to think. Doesn't understand. Probably not processing fast enough. Hardison, though, nods. Understands the crazy. "Reading upside down, huh. Alright then, how's that sound?" Hardison is looking at him again, a small smile on his face. It's nice, kind and open and puppyish. Not at all sharky. "Eliot seems like it'd fit you."

He thinks. Trying it out. "Eliot." His voice is quiet, but he can hear it. Hear the nice ring it has. The power having a name holds. He smiles, nods. "I like it."

Hardison nods with him, smile growing, and Parker appears in his feild of vision again. "Alrighty then," she says, standing and looking at them both. "Let's steal Eliot away to Nate's. Sophie'll love him." Then she walks away, ignoring Hardison's complaints as the man helps him to his feet and begins walking them to the sidewalk.

Arm around Hardison's shoulder and following behind Parker, the trio makes their way to apparently Nate's place and he smiles.

No, that's wrong. Eliot smiles, and somewhere in his programming the AI_Base shatters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah. Should probably be doing other things. Not gonna happen. Sleeping is overrated anyway.
> 
> Translation: moj mali vojnik-my little solider. Croatian because Moreau's actor is and it's a tribute. Google translated it so if it's wrong just give me a shout out please.
> 
> Also, .cmpx is made up. I figured if you're trying to program something as complicated as a human being (or something that you want to be as close to human as possible) you need a different and complex file. So .cmpx was born.


	2. Gaining Self

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eliot is dragged to Nate's and of course the man just rolls with it, and Eliot takes some time to heal and think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still mainly Leverage, though again I do have plans to drag them into the Marvel world more (cameo in this chapter. Browines for who spots it first. Not tagging cause I'm lazy)
> 
> Also this isn't beta read by anyone, so all mistakes are my own. None of the characters are mine though, those are all borrowed.

Over time, Eliot grows. He fixes himself. Gets almost all his Internal Logs back but is still missing 94. He wonders what was in those 94 logs. Hardison can't help him either. Says the data isn't retrievable.

The man helps him in different ways. He codes something that fixes the nanobots in his blood stream, putting some sort of firewall around them so they can't be messed with again. Eliot likes it. Takes a while for him to understand firewalls though. Stane and the techs and Moreau never bothered with firewalls. They thought he'd always be theirs.

Two months pass since Hardison and Parker pull Eliot from the trash, and he still is amazed. Maybe a lingering effect of the virus. Emotion getting stuck. Not that he emotes a lot anyway. It's who he is. Hardison calls it 'judgey' and 'salty'. Eliot doesn't even bothering connecting to the internet and figuring it out. Doesn't want to understand the hacker's social media shit anytime soon, thank you very much.

Parker is easier to deal with, louder in certain gestures and hard to predict, but she follows her own logic. Eliot can work with logic. He finds out she's a feral mutant early on, something cat-like that shows up when the girl is climbing in things or jumping off things or stealing shiny things. She's different than Hardison in that her logic works better than her feelings. Hardison gets it, Eliot thinks, but the man always looks at Parker all sad puppy sometimes when she's being particularly uncaring about emotions.

.... Come to think of it, Hardison looks at Eliot like that too. Eliot will have to frown more. Discourage the look or something. Messes with his protective emotions programming seeing the man looking kicked.

He stays with a man they call Nate. He's human as human gets. And drunk. It smells gross and Eliot wonders how the man doesn't die of malnutrition after calculating his diet and alcoholic intake. Take into the fact of grief --since there's data showing grief is a thing that takes a toll-- Eliot can safely say Nate should have been buried well before he meets the man. Because, apparently, the bastard was _worse_ before Eliot was dragged beaten and broken onto his couch.

The most confusing one though is Sophie. Eliot doesn't like her. She's a mutant, like Parker, but not. Technically she mimicks people. Can do voice impressions and even alter her appearance in small ways. Helps with cons, she always brags. She can also sense people's emotions, and spent the first two weeks staring at Eliot. He doesn't register with her empathy, and she tries to play it off like it doesn't bother her. It does, he can tell.

Sophie also programmed him to make her tea. Somehow. Without getting in his head. It screws him up, to put simply.

When Eliot realizes, he ends up accidently breaking four tea cups and sulking on the corner of couch he claimed under a blanket. Hardison checks later. Says Eliot wrote the code in himself, unconsciously or some shit. Like a person. Hardison has the biggest grin on his face, so Eliot tones down the sulking. He can't tell Hardison that he's not a person, not really, and doing things unconsciously is a human thing. Which, again, Eliot can't actually say. He's tried.

Eliot can think of millions of things, sure, but that's what he's programmed to do. He was programmed to, one day, realize himself. Just because he did it faster than the others in the project doesn't mean anything besides his body accepted the code easier. He still goes through the thought process steps imbedded in his base codes. Still has programs set in place to direct his thoughts. Still can't make something original. Parker always tries to get him to tell stories, and Eliot has to pull up things from his database.

Hardison had arguments against all of Eliot's points, but the one that shut him down (not literally) was the most obvious. It scared Eliot, just about, thinking about it.

If Eliot was a mindless machine, advanced AI or no, how'd he disobey Moreau?

Eliot didn't think about it. Caused too many skips in his processing. Went against his bases that his loves. Discipline. Loyalty. Protect. Honor.

_Obedience_.

The first time Hardison brings up running away from Moreau, Eliot forces himself to shut down right in the middle of Nate's kitchen. Too much going on in his head at once, and the darkness is a welcomed blessing.

* * *

 

Three months after he's brought to Nate's, with spring just starting to show in the budding trees, Nate and Hardison ask Eliot to join their team.

Their thieves, he picked up that much on his own, but as Nate explains they steal from the rich, give to the poor. Reminds Eliot of the Robin Hood stories, but confuses him all the same. They're offering him to join, but...

"I'm a weapon," he states, frowning and letting his confusion show on his face.

Hardison looks kicked again. _Shit_. Eliot tries to scowl less, but the hacker speaks anyway. "Naw man. Look, I've seen your code, right? It's impressive beyond belief, but all the bases that I've seen are all nonviolent. You've broken through a lot of programming on your own, and if I could help redirect the coding in ways that you like more or-" Talking. So. _Much_. _**Talking**_.

Nate puts down the whiskey he's been nursing, though Eliot does a quick scan and sees that the man hasn't really drank any of it. Just a few sips. _Huh_. Another scan of Nate shows average body temperature, no change in pulse, no signs of intoxication. Eliot glances up, meeting blue eyes that always seem to see more and are now shining knowingly. Eliot's glad he can't blush, caught with his hand in the cookie jar as the saying goes, and Nate smiles just the slightest bit. Hardison is still babbling when Nate cuts in with, "What Hardison is trying to say is that you were a weapon for someone, but now you can be whatever you want. I'd like for you to join us, be our muscle, but I'm not forcing you. It would be better to have a constant source of protection for us." Nate says _'us'_ , but with the way he glances towards the hacker, Eliot knows he means ' _them_ '. Hardison and Parker.

_Goddamned manipulative bastard._ "Alright. I'll join your stupid crew, if only to get Hardison to shut up," he growls out, looking down at the table and totally not pouting when Nate and Hardison wear matching grins.

Later, when Nate has gone down to talk to their new client, Hardison claps him on the shoulder in some imitation of a hug before hacker and thief leave for the night. Eliot sits on his corner of the couch, closes his eyes, and drops down into a meditative state to look through his code. Trying to find a glitch somewhere.

Two hours later and his shoulder is still warm where Hardison's hand had been, and Eliot never finds the glitch causing it.

* * *

 

The jobs they take ar --dare he say-- fun. Eliot is nervous at first, worried about trying to play on the good side, but as the cons go on he relaxes into the rhythme. Helping people feels good. Warm somewhere in his body that had nothing to do with body heat functions or programming. It just happens.

Hardison starts a regular check up every three weeks. The ritual soothes Eliot, and he finds himself comfortable with the young man. And Parker, since she hangs around. Most of what Hardison does has to be on a computer, but still hooked to Eliot, which means lots of sitting on the floor with Hardison behind him so the hacker doesn't damage anything if the cord jerks. Happened once, and triggered Eliot to restart.

When he had come back online, Hardison was freaking out thinking he'd killed Eliot. Which the hitter thought was stupid, since he wasn't technically alive, but whatever. Hardison was Hardison. He fusses worse than a grandmother hen and can't do anything subtly to save his life, but Eliot finds that he wouldn't have the hacker any other way.

Parker braids his hair when Hardison does his check ups. Or brushes it. Puts it up in different buns and ponytails and brushes it again. She likes messing with his hair, and the sensations send little happy feelings all through his brain so he lets her. One time she even brought her claws out --little sharp pieces of her bones that somehow came out of the tips of her fingers-- and started scratching his head. Eliot had too much stubborn pride written into him to admit it, but he had moaned happily and leaned his head back. In response, Parker had purred, and started scratching his scalp like that during movie nights as well. Lots of warm feelings.

Usually when he's being checked, or Hardison is downloading something onto him, or really any time Eliot has his hair pulled up and the little USB port showing, Nate leaves the room. He doesn't look at it unless he has to, and while Eliot made sure all of them knew where exactly on his skull his shutdown buttons are Nate has never touched them. All that behaviour sets Eliot on edge, unsure what to do. He wants Nate to like him. Or at least acknowledge what he is and isn't.

Nate is almost as bad as Hardison is, just a lot less vocal about wanting him to be human. The hacker knows he's not, just tried to convince Eliot otherwise. Nate at least doesn't say anything and keeps his delusional thoughts of humanity to himself.

Life moves on though. They steal lots of money from assholes. Give it back to people who got robbed blind. Send lots of people to jail and Eliot gets to bust a few heads.

(He doesn't kill anymore. Nate never asks him to, and Eliot is greatful for that.)

Hardison helps Eliot with the coding and drags the very reluctant hitter into several show binges that Eliot will never forget thanks to his momeory and will never admit that he loves the Tenth Doctor most. Parker takes him running, though since it's Parker there's a lot more parkour involved and jumps that would kill anyone who wasn't half machine or super healing mutant. (Eliot does a little digging, and finds out about a well known mutant guy that sounds shockingly similar to Parker, but backs out when the government files start showing up for Weapon X. Parker's not like that, and Eliot will never let them get to her) Nate and him sit down in McRory's sometimes, Nate with his full glass of whiskey and Eliot with a bottle of beer, and enjoy each other's silence in a way that neither will admit is friendship. Sophie still watches him. Keeps her distance. He's perfectly fine with that.

* * *

 

Sophie cons the team.

Eliot is so not fine with that.

[TBC]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So as you can probably tell, this is structured a little different than the last chapter, especially the beginning of chapter 1. That's intended, and will probably walk a thin line between the two as Eliot becomes more himself and such.
> 
> This chapter isn't as long as the first, but I felt like I needed to break it off here or it'd get too massive for me to even want to deal with it. Hope you enjoy and have a very wonderful day.


End file.
